::Shameless Self-Promotion::

Discipline is available in EPUB format too. No longer password-protected since I'm not going to try to publish it.

[link] ManyBooks is similaryly awesome as Gutenberg.

I just finished reading a YA book called "I Am Not Esther" - set in New Zealand, a young girl being raised by her mother (father's dead) is dumped into her mother's family, who are members of a super-conservative cult. All about her trying to find out where her mother's gone (supposedly Africa to work with refugees - she's a nurse), try to fit in with the family without losing herself.

Anyone else know it?

Read Novik's Victory of Eagles last night - after my cable went out and before I fell asleep - I have no idea what time I actually went to sleep. REALLY enjoyed it more than I had enjoyed the last one. For me the best part was when Temeraire was on his own and we really saw dragon culture/society.

I am overjoyed to see that I've come to this chapter in their saga so late that the next book is already out. I cannot wait to read about Temeraire and Laurence's adventures in the Antepodes.

Also, I see that Patrick Rothfusses' second book is going to be out in March.

Also, I see that Patrick Rothfusses' second book is going to be out in March.

For REALS? Good times.

Well, Amazon has it as March 1st. I hope it's for real.

And he confirms it in his blog.

I am officially halfway through Midnight's Children, and it is finally about, a P-C put it so well, Indian kids with superpowers. I've found the language compelling throughout, but I'm finally getting really interested in the plot. And I love the whole way it is being told, with his constant interruptions by Padma and his tangents. I'm glad I picked this one up!

I went into a small bookstore last night to see if they had The Hunger Games because the corner of one of my pages was inexplicably torn out, and the guy had never heard of it. What, how can you work at a bookstore and not know The Hunger Games ?

Anyway, I just finished! Katniss is still totally awesome, although I am in some ways disappointed that she didn't KILL THEM ALL. I kind of expected the Games to go a different way, and it seemed like most of the tributes killed each other, leaving very little blood on her hands. I also thought we might get to know more of the tributes better so that we would care when they died, but not so much. There are a lot of ways you could tell this story, and although Collins didn't do it the way I thought she would, I still liked it, especially all the survivalist tactics (now I want Katniss to meet Cass from The Secret Series). I loved the fact that it was all a big snuff film reality show and the fact that the Gamemakers kept fucking with them to make it more entertaining.

I knew two things about this series: the basic concept of the Hunger Games (but not the details) and that there was some sort of love triangle that people cared about. I was excited about the former but dreaded the latter. But the way Collins played it is kind of awesome. It's not that two people pretend to be in love and then they really fall in love is an original concept, but the fact that it's so tied to their survival makes things really fucked-up. I don't want Katniss's conflicted feelings to get annoying, though. So far, they seem realistic enough. She's in a weird position, for sure. And because people had mentioned Peeta in later books, I knew he had to survive the Games too, and I thought it was going to be kind of a cheat, and I sort of rolled my eyes at the mid-Games rules change, but then near the end, I started to think it would be kind of awesome if they changed the rules back, and THEY DID, so it was less of a cheat, and in the denouement I saw that even though it seemed like not forcing Katniss to kill Peeta was the easy way out...Collins actually did pick the path that made things hardest for her characters.

The great thing now is that I have NO FUCKING CLUE what happens in the other two books. All I knew was there were Hunger Games. Now what? Is Katniss going to lead a new rebellion? Are there going to be lots of explosions? And is Gale going to get a fair shot at being her suitor? Poor everyone.

P-C, are you aware of Mark Reads the Hunger Games? He's unspoiled, and reads a chapter a day and posts his reactions and so forth. I'm actually loving reading it.

Speaking of Rushdie, I have 2 copies of the Satanic Verses in hardcover. Does anyone want my duplicate copy?